Motorola recently launched its much anticipated successor to the Moto G3, the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus. The company surprised many by launching two different variants of the Moto G4, but it will help the Lenovo-owned company to better cater to various customer demands.
Since these are the first proper handsets from Motorola to be launched under Lenovo’s management, they are significantly different compared to previous Moto G handsets — both in a good and bad way. So, if you are planning on buying the Moto G4 or Moto G4 Plus, make sure to read our 5 things to know about the handset below before taking the final decision.
#5 No IPX7 rating
This is probably going to be a huge disappointment for many but the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus don’t feature the IPX7 rating found in its predecessor. The handsets only come with a water repellent nano-coating that ensures your phone will survive some water spill, but it will definitely not survive being dunked in water.
Last year, the Moto G3 had a unique advantage over its competitors thanks to its IPX7 rating, but it looks like the feature was not something that many consumers were interested in. No wonder Motorola and Lenovo decided to ditch it this year.
#4 TurboPower Charging
The Moto G3 was a great phone for its price but it lacked any kind of quick charging technology. Thanks to their Snapdragon 617 chipset, the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus both feature TurboPower charging technology. Its not that the 3,000mAh battery on the handset is not enough to easily last a day, but the ability to quickly recharge your phone’s battery to make it last through a particularly heavy day is always welcome.
Motorola did not provide any details about the charging times of the Moto G4, though it did say that only 15mins of charging the handset is enough to make it last an additional six hours. And this time around, Motorola is also bundling a TurboPower charger with the handsets.
#3 Fingerprint scanner
Fingerprint scanners have become a commonplace in almost all smartphones of today. So, its not surprising that the Moto G4 Plus also comes with a fingerprint scanner. Motorola says that the fingerprint scanner on the handset is able to recognise and unlock the phone in just 0.7 seconds, which is slightly slower than what other OEMs claim about the fingerprint scanners on their handset.
Do note though that the Moto G4 does not come with a fingerprint scanner despite packing the same internals as the Moto G4 Plus.
#2 Moto G Play
In addition to the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus, Motorola also launched the Moto G Play. The company did not mention anything about the handset during its launch event in India, but the press release did provide some information about it. The Moto G Play is essentially a slightly upgraded variant of the 2nd gen. Moto E from last year. It comes with a bigger 5-inch 720p display, 2GB RAM, an 8MP shooter, and a 2800mAh battery. It is also powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 410 chipset, and just like its other Moto G brethren, the G Play also runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The handset will launch later this summer, and it is when its price will be unveiled, though looking at the specs, it is likely that the handset will sell for around the $140 mark.
#1 Motorola’s Lenovo-fication is complete
Lenovo completed its acquisition of Motorola towards the end of October 2014. At first, the company announced that it would be running Motorola independently, but the slowdown in the smartphone market led the company to change its decision. Then, earlier this year, it was revealed that Lenovo would be phasing out the Motorola branding from all Moto phones. The new Moto G4 are the first phone to feature Motorola’s new branding, that of Lenovo. The retail boxes of the phones now feature a Lenovo branding, alongside Moto’s batwing logo, so as to remind one that Motorola is now owned by Lenovo.
The Moto G4 Plus is already up for sale in India exclusively through Amazon India. Note that Motorola is selling the handset in two different RAM and storage configurations: 2GB/16GB storage and 3GB/32GB storage, with a price difference of only Rs. 1,500 between the two. So if you plan to buy the Moto G4 Plus, make sure to go for the 3GB RAM variant. The Moto G4 will launch in India next month.
Both handsets will also go on sale in other parts of the world within the next couple of months. How impressed are you with the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus? Will you be buying either of them?